German
SS and Police Unit Radio Messages in British
Archives

Notes extracted
from the Newly Released files of German SS and Police
Intercepts deciphered by British codebreakers.

[Notes made by David Irving during
research for the second volume of his Churchill's
War.

IN THE Public Record Office in London
(PRO) are now housed the records of the former Police
section at Bletchley Park, where British codebreakers had
begun reading the German SS and police messages even before
WWII.

The police section amassed thousands
of intercepts of police units on the eastern front, police
headquarters in Germany, and concentration camp commandants
reporting to Berlin.

It is worth noting, as the late
Professor Sir Frank Hinsley the official historian
points
out, that nowhere in these
myriads of (top secret, enciphered) messages is there any
reference to gas chambers or gassings. 'The returns from
Auschwitz, the largest of the camps with 20,000 prisoners,
mentioned illness as the main cause of death, but included
references to shootings and hangings. There were no
references in the decrypts to gassing.' [Hinsley et al.,
British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its
Influence on Strategy and Operations, Cambridge, 1979
- 84, 3 vols., vol. ii, appendix, page 673.]

Sir, Professor Richard Breitman's achievement in
winkling out of The United States Government of the
transcripts of the telegraphic reports of The Nazi
Einsatzgruppen killer squads in Russia in 1941 (report,
"Britain knew Jews were being killed 'before Auschwitz' ")
is to be applauded.

However, it should be recalled that in 1981 Professor
F. H. Hinsleyrevealed
that the British intelligence Enigma decrypts of German
telegraphic traffic also included German police and security
reports of their mass killing of Jew's in Russia and the
Ukraine in the autumn of 1941.

Summaries of those decrypts were submitted to Winston
Churchill on a regular basis and these were eventually made
available for public inspection at the Public Record Office,
Kew, in November 1993. Three years ago my efforts to have
transcripts of the decrypts themselves made available at Kew
proved abortive.

In view of Professor Breitman's success in Washington,
and of the nonsense that this makes of Britain's
unwillingness or inability to release the British holdings
of these documents, I have now written to the Prime Minister
asking for their release.

WHAT
IS surprising is that although every minute detail of
SS and concentration camp operations is mirrored in these
thousands of messages, preserved either in the original
German, or in English translation (and sometimes in both)
there is no reference whatever to mass killing operations by
gas or any other method in the camps.

Every other conceivable detail is however reflected in
the signals, including a signal to Auschwitz commandant S.S.
SturmbannführerRudolf
Höss in September 1942 regretting that
rubber truncheons are 'unobtainable in Breslau.'

Bletchley Park historians recalled the German code
weaknesses and security lapses, always the same addresses at
the beginning, e.g. 'An den Befehlshaber der
Ordnungspolizei in Frankfurt am Main' which 'made the
cryptographer's life a happy one.' Indications of internal
disintegration in Germany were disappointingly few.
Interception of low-frequency traffic was much easier in
France. On the evening of May 9, 1940 there was
decoded the urgent German summons to prevent a high official
from crossing into Holland; this was the only hint of GELB
from this source. Work did not then resume until August
1940 at BP. Berlin began to jump on security breaches,
like messages exceeding the maximum permitted 180 letters
and easy standard cribs, like a daily report on the rise and
fall of the Elbe. For the BARBAROSSA traffic a separate key
and new frequencies were instituted; in August 1941 two sets
of keys in the East were introduced for each day. Even so
they got 30 to 100 decodes a day, with forty staff working
on the task.

On September 13, 1941 Kurt Daluege, Chef der
Ordnungspolizei, sent the following message to the
HSSuPf of the forces in Russia,

'The danger of decipherment by the enemy of
wireless messages is great. For this reason only such
matters are to be transmitted by wireless as can be
considered open [groups missed]. Confidential or
Secret, but not information which is containing State
secrets, calls for especially secret treatment. Into this
category fall exact figures of executions (these are to
be sent by Courier) '

The scale of these executions was 'a clear indication of
the utter ruthlessness of the Germans in Russia.' The
GC&CS report adds,

'The anxiety may have been increased by a speech
by the Prime Minister drawing the attention of the world
to this carnage. In any case the German authorities
evidently demanded more drastic steps still, and these
culminated in a complete change of cypher in
mid-September. Double transposition [a
straightforward system, and relatively simple to
break] was dropped (never to appear to again) and
Double Playfair took its place.'

The result was the reverse of what the Germans had
intended, because if they had retained Double Transposition
with still further splitting up of keys it would soon have
put BP out of business, Double Playfair quickly proved to be
a most breakable cypher, and it became the exception to fail
to break a day. From the spring of 1942 the Russians began
providing high quality raw intercepts; in return BP provided
decrypts and daily keys until December -- they say -- when
liaison unfortunately broke down and nothing more was
received. Throughout the winter of 1942 German police
traffic was one of the few sources providing information
from the eastern front, but in November the German police,
nervous again about security, introduced their next major
cypher alteration. By February 1943 however the section was
again up to four to five hundred decodes a week. BP now had
five hundred people, including those at the 'Y' stations
dedicated to this task, working on the Police codes. Things
got easy in July 1944 when the Police Flying Squadron in
Poland sent in a standard daily report. But on September 1,
1944, the Germans introduced the new raster cypher, the best
hand-cypher they had ever devised; the time-lag now
increased from twenty-four hours to a week or more. 'The
content of the messages was, naturally, of increasing
interest and provides as a whole a singular picture of the
last days of the Nazi reigime and of its individual leaders.
For this reason cryptographic work was continued long after
VE-day (no police-keys were ever captured) ' [GC&CS,
'History of the German Police Section, 1939--45' in PRO file
HW.3/155.]

On September 2, 1941 Churchill is shown a brief report from
Nigel de Grey on 'German Police,' a report to Himmler dated
August 26, 1941 :

'A report from the Berditschew Korosten area
mentions that the Russians are still retiring and burning
the villages. Prisoners taken number 47, Jews shot 1246,
losses nil.'

Churchill rings the '1,246' in red
ink. [PRO file HW.1/40] On October 13, 1941 Churchill read a summary
which included German police messages analysed by Nigel de
Grey two days earlier:

'On 26/9 arrangements were being made for a 3 or
4 day visit by Himmler to the Southern Area of the
Russian front. Places to be visited were Shitomir,
Berditschew (where the dwellings etc. of the German
colonies were the attraction. Dept Note .:
It will be remembered that the Russians were reported to
have removed the German population to Siberia.) Thence to
Kiew, if possible to Uman, then Krivoi-Rog, Nikolaiew and
possibly Cherson. He was accompanied by his fleet of cars
including his wireless car. 'On 13/9 the 3 officers
commanding on the North, Centre and South Russian Front
were reminded that the danger of their messages being
decoded was great. Among other secret matters that should
not be sent by wireless was the number of executions
carried out.'

'A touch of somewhat macabre humour emerges from
the warning recently issued to Senior Officers that
executions were not to be reported by W/T. The order has
been variously interpreted -- some report "Action
according to the usages or war", while others report that
so many partisans are "dead" -- as distinct from "shot".'

He later added that 'There has been noted a pretty
consistent demand for Anti-typhoid lymph in the eastern
areas for the inoculation of Police units. It is difficult
to know whether these demands in any way exceed the normal,
given the conditions occasioned by war.' [GC&CS
German Police Section, [Nigel] de G[rey],
'German Police, Oct 17, 1941 (PRO file HW.1/148).]

CX/MSS/1071/T6. On June 9, 1942 'Most Secret,
Chefsache, Nur durch Offizier' this order was sent by
OKW WFSt Qu Abt. K to Pz Armee Afrika ):

According to reports to hand there are said to
be numerous German political refugees with the Free
French units in Africa. The Führer has ordered that
the severest measures are to be taken against those
concerned. They are therefore to be mercilessly wiped out
in battle, and in cases where they escape being killed in
battle, a military sentence is to be pronounced
immediately by the nearest German officer and they are to
be shot out of hand, unless they have to be temporarily
retained for Intelligence purposes. This order must not
be forwarded in writing. Commanding officers are to be
told verbally.

On October 26, 1942 the codebreakers found Berlin
warning Auschwitz to stand by to receive two visitors from
the Führer's Chancellery in Berlin - the agency
supervising euthanasia and various other killing schemes -
for a lengthy stay at the camp: they would be setting up an
X-ray sterilisation operation, the radio signal said (this
being the method chosen by the S.S. to keep the Jews from
breeding). (GC&CS German Police Section intercept:
Lolling, Amt D III, to Auschwitz, Oct 26, 1942
(PRO file HW.16/11).]

On October 27, 1942 Sachsenhausen reported that it
was shipping to Auschwitz two hundred Soviet prisoners of
war found to have contracted tuberculosis. (GC&CS German
Police Section intercept: KL Sachsenhausen (gez.
Liebehenschel) an Amt D III, Oct 27, 1942 (PRO file
HW.16/11).]

After Berlin ordered that all camp fatalities were to be
reported, on December 1, 1942 Buchenwald dutifully
reported, in their secret code, a total of 134 deaths from
natural causes during November including four Jews.
(GC&CS German Police Section intercept: KL
Buchenwald (gez. Hoven) an Amt D III, betr Meldung der
Todesfällen von Häftlingen, Dec 1, 1942
(PRO file HW.16/11).]

During early 1943 the intercepts were found to
contain with greater frequency the word
Sonderbehandlung, special treatment, which was
evidently a thinly veiled reference to the termination of
Germany's enemies. [Re Sonderbehandlung.]
In one such message on January 17, 1943 the chief of
police in Kiev reported laconically, 'So far 853 screened
and 614 special-treated.' (GC&CS German Police Section
intercept GPD1238I/2/4 Jan 18, 1943: BdS Kiew und
Befehlststelle Sipo und SD, Owritsch, to Berlin, Jan
17, 1943 (PRO file HW.16/11).] A month later a report to
the same police chief in Kiev after completion of the
anti-partisan sweep HORNUNG listed the body count as

'Eighty British prisoners
(Häftlinge) suitable for employment as
'Capos' are required for the concentration camp at
Auschwitz (Schlesien).'

ACT commented that 'Capos' appear to be overseers or
foremen selected from among the prisoners themselves. (A
signal timed June 23, 1942]. (PRO file
HW.1/761]

The same report states ('German Police, 34/42' signed ACT,
July 19, 1942:], 'A message from Himmler to SS
Gruppenführer Jedicke, Riga, seems to
refer to the abiding quarrel between the SS and the
Army.

"Tell the gentlemen," says Himmler, "that I
shall not stand for any special pleading or explanations
of exceptional cases and the like. Moreover, not another
soldier shall enter Weissruthenien; mastery of the
situation will be gained there too. Do everything to
carry things through vigorously with the forces at your
disposal."

(In a PRO file HW16/9, 'German police reports,
unnumbered' are the following:] Report dated November
24, 1942 , on Police Battalions, their movements, by
number, 1 through 325. Report on Police Regiments
Interrogation of SS Hauptscharführer
Robert Barth, Austrian. Was member of
Einsatzgruppe D in Russia from June 1941.

MI14(d)/0/161 a 'most secret source' reports on June 3, 1943
on a disappointing lack of chaos caused by the attacks on
German dams in early hours of May 17, 1943 . The
Germans, it seemed, had moved with usual efficiency to
repair the damage. By 0950 operational police HQ Möhne
had been set up. Nothing in the intercepts indicated any
public disturbance or rioting had resulted, units were
withdrawing on May 21, the few Ruhr bridges which had been
closed were reopened to traffic on May 23 and 24. 'It is
perhaps also of interest to note that up to and including 23
May no message about the dams was reported by the ordinary
most secret police source, although most air raids have been
reflected in requests from German policemen on active
service to come home on compassionate leave or, if at home,
to have leave extended.' (PRO file, 'German police reports,
unnumbered,' file HW16/9).

'Subject: Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Flossenbürg has fallen into the enemy's hands. In
other cases the enemy has turned part of the prisoners
(many of them armed) loose on the civilian
population.'Please take the necessary measures from your end and on
your responsibility. The Jewish prisoners must at all
costs be transferred to Concentration Camp Dachau.'

General Gustave Bertrand's 1973 book Enigma
also mentions on pages 117 - 8 the SS messages dealing with
the executions of Jews. Cooper thinks they were sent in
Enigma ORANGE - a steckered Enigma key, but one often broken
by hand methods in Hut Six at this time. 'See History of Hut
ix, vol. ii, page 2.'

Miscellaneous.In the Public Record Office War Office Intelligence files
there are also interrogations referring to Auschwitz in file
WO.208/4296.Interrogations of

a Polish timber merchant, born 28.2.12, at Birkenau
1.8.43-30.1.44: routine references to gas chambers but
not himself a witness.

Polish bricklayer, born 20.1.23, at Auschwitz,
references to gassings, not a witness

French student, born 15.1.19, at Auschwitz 4.44 -
27.1.45;

and other such items, all very indeterminate about actual
goings-on (as only hearsay).